GILMER, Thomas Walker, a Representative from Virginia; born in Gilmerton, Albemarle County,
Va., April 6, 1802; attended the common schools; studied law; was admitted to
the bar and commenced practice in Charlottesville, Va.; member of the State
house of delegates 1829-1836 and again in 1839 and 1840, serving as speaker the
last two years; elected Governor of Virginia and served from March 31, 1840,
until his resignation on March 20, 1841; elected as a Whig to the
Twenty-seventh Congress and as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress and
served from March 4, 1841, until February 16, 1844, when he resigned; appointed
Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Tyler February 15, 1844, and
served until he was killed by the bursting of a gun on board the U.S.S.
Princeton on the Potomac River, near Washington, D.C.,
February 28, 1844; interment in Mount Air Cemetery, Albermarle County, Va.